


Graveyard Party.

by Haughtshit1



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear, Ficlet, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, One Shot, Party, Sad, Sleep Paralysis, graveyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:56:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haughtshit1/pseuds/Haughtshit1
Summary: All seven-year-old Nell wants to do is celebrate her mothers birthday; But Hill House killed Olivia, and apparently the ghost she encountered there are not finished with Nell. Apparently They never will be.The only thing Theo wants is the answer as to why her youngest sister ran away to a graveyard in the middle of the night.--“You’re going to give Aunt Janet a fucking heart attack one of these days. You know I have better things to do then search for you at six in the fucking morning Nell.”Nellie opened her eyes. An understandable mistake. Hovering above her, like all of the times before was a woman in a dirty, yet still a pretty white dress, with a blue-ish tint to her decaying skin, and a horribly bent neck.
Relationships: Eleanor "Nell" Crain & Olivia Crain, Eleanor "Nell" Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain, Eleanor "Nell" Crain/Theodora "Theo" Crain, Olivia Crain & Theodora "Theo" Crain
Kudos: 31





	Graveyard Party.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this came from. However, all i can think about is an album cover in black and white of a little girl in a graveyard wearing a party hat, but the party hat is coloured. idk what i'm on about, thanks for giving this a chance :)

The little girl sat cross-legged on the ground of the graveyard. It was littered with autumn leaves. She picked at the nearest stick to her, pulling at the loose bark. She shivered in her colour-blocked fluffy onesie; however, it wasn’t very cold. Despite it being late October, the weather was surprisingly warm at 2am in her very own desolate graveyard.

Her spotty, colourful party hat sat crooked on her lanky, brown, unbrushed hair. The dark wellie boots were 2 sizes too big for her and they hung loosely towards the ground. She pushed herself up from the dusty path and stood clumsily, making her way towards a gravestone 4 paces in front of her.

“Good evening,” she whispered to no one. Her eyes scattered around her, making sure that she was alone. She crouched beside a square, stone grave marker, her little knees cracking as she squatted. “it’s your birthday today. I brought you a hat.” The child proceeded to place a matching party hat on the top of the stone marker, smiling slightly when she got it to balance just right.

It was dark outside; the moon and the stars were the only source of light. They shone an ominous white glow towards the graveyard. Two large pine trees loomed over the entrance, almost forcing people away. Well they were obviously not doing their job very well, because a seven-year-old girl in a onesie and wellie boots was currently having a vivid conversation with a gravestone in a party hat.

“I _memembered_ your birthday. I put it in the calendar daddy gave me. How cool is that?!? I’m big enough to own a _calendar_! I am basically an adult now. Pretty soon I’ll be a, a working woman!”

The girl rolled herself directly on to the grave. She lay down, her head touching the base of the gravestone, her eyes directed towards the sky.

“I had _basgetthi_ for dinner. It was pretty good actually. _Basghetti_ is a grown-up food, because its messy, and only grown-ups can eat it without making a mess. I made a small bit of a mess, but I cleaned it up all by myself. That is _super_ grown-up by the way.”

The girl talked and talked; her heart felt content for the first time in a long while. She told the grave about school and her lack of friends, she updated it on her family life and even gave it a tour of all the new bruises that somehow had formed on her body miraculously overnight. By half three she was supressing yawns, and just before 4am, the young girl lay on her side, her hands crossed under her head and her leg tucked slightly in. she snored softly, the corpse below her picking up every sound.

Not two hours later she was awake again, the rising sun ruining her fretful sleep. She was awake but she couldn’t move.

_Not again. No, no, no, no._

She closed her eyes as tight as she could, waiting for it to pass, waiting for the ability to move. Waiting, just waiting. Waiting and breathing and hoping that _she_ wasn’t there. But she was. She was always there. She could _feel_ her there. _Breathing,_ millimetres above the child’s face and her small squinting eyes.

“Eleanor Crain, I swear to god!” a young, but tough female voice boomed out. Nellie wanted to reply, but she could barely breath, let alone scream like she truly wanted to. So, she stayed still (like she had a choice) and whimpered as loud as possible.

“You’re going to give Aunt Janet a fucking heart attack one of these days. You know I have better things to do then search for you at six in the fucking morning Nell.”

Nellie opened her eyes. An understandable mistake. Hovering above her, like all of the times before was a woman in a dirty, yet still a pretty white dress, with a blue-ish tint to her decaying skin, and a horribly bent neck. Nellie finally found the ability to scream again.

Theo found the girl minutes after. She cradled her head and rocked her back and forth gently, regretting her lack of gloves immensely as she found the fear inside of her bubbling up, like spaghetti that was left unattended. ‘‘ _Why am I thinking of basgh-, spaghetti of all things?’_

The sense of fear and her _pain_ was becoming unbearable. _She didn’t even know why she was scared._ She wanted to let go, she _needed_ to let go, but couldn’t.

_-If I am feeling this much, what is Nell feeling? Does she always feel this?-_

So, Theo Crain held Nell. She held her tight and refused to let go. It hurt so badly, but she didn’t release her. Quiet tears trickled down Theo’s pale skin, but she didn’t sob, she wouldn’t sob or cry. I mean, there were tears, but she wouldn’t _cry._

Theo and Nell stayed in each other’s arms until Theo finally felt the fear dissipate. It went away. But it wasn’t gone. That was scarier than _anything._ Nellie’s _pain_ never went away. It would never go away. It was always there. It would always be there.

They later sang happy birthday to the plain headstone and ate chocolate cake that Nell had saved her pocket money to buy, leaving a slice on a cheap paper plate by the foot of the grave.

Olivia watched the interactions in silence. That’s all she could do really. Quite like her youngest daughter when she saw the dead; Olivia couldn’t speak when she saw the living. Tragic really. But it was okay, because she still got to watch the odd form of communication Theodora and Eleanor chose to have. And she was quite certain, that both of her children were fully aware of her presence at this graveyard party.


End file.
